MODULE FOUR: COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIESLearning outcomes for this module At the end of this module you should be-able to:
List some computer technologies that can be used in the classroom
Prepare a lesson by using any of the computer technologies available
How to use the internet and search engines
Multimedia Applications for the Classroom There is a clear disconnect between the media students are accustomed to using outside the classroom and the media they predominantly use within the classroom. Students spend copious amounts of their free time socializing, shopping, and even studying on the Internet, where they are flooded with text, images, video, animation, and sound in what is a complex multimedia environment. The younger generation is intimately familiar with multimedia, accustomed to receiving and sharing information in a range of formats. In contrast, students spend most of their time in the classroom viewing printed text and listening to a teacher. This disconnect is troublesome. While students are accustomed to having a range of means to communicate and process information outside of school, they must conform to a more restrictive media environment within school. Printed text is one-size-fits-all, but students' learning strengths, needs, and interests are all over the map. Thus, the traditional print-driven curriculum raises a number of barriers to access and learning. Integration of multimedia into instruction can help to reduce curriculum barriers and improve learning for all students. This article provides a basic introduction to multimedia and describes how it can be used to support student learning. A general definition of multimedia Multimedia is in essence a presentation of information that incorporates multiple media such as text, audio, graphics, and animation. The representations can be redundant, incorporating the same content, or complementary, offering additional information. Multimedia need not be computerized, but computers offer some of the most seamless multimedia presentations. Moreover, digital multimedia, such as a simple CD-ROM, can offer teachers greater ease of presentation. Types of multimedia and their classroom applications There are numerous types of multimedia. Below we review a selection of different multimedia forms, focusing on their potential for supporting diverse learners.
Talking books and speech synthesis Digital texts can be read aloud using recorded human voice or synthetic text-to-speech programs. Read-aloud is an intrinsic feature of so-called talking books, but with text-to-speech software, virtually any digital content—including web-based texts—can be read aloud, with or without synchronous highlighting of the printed text. Speech synthesis can be segmented at a variety of levels, providing feedback at the level of the passage, sentence, word, onset rime, syllable, or subsyllable. Read-aloud offers potential benefits to many students, including students with visual deficits, students with decoding problems, and reluctant readers. In addition to providing access to curriculum content for those who cannot see or decode printed text, read-aloud can support the development of key literacy skills such as fluency and reading comprehension, and increase engagement and motivation. Text-to-speech is also a beneficial writing tool. It may be easier for students to recognize errors when listening versus reading a composition. By using text-to-speech to read back the text they have written, students may be able to revise more successfully. CD-ROM storybooks CD-ROM storybooks offer digital text in combination with features such as animations, illustrations, speech, and sound. For example, a CD-ROM storybook might offer the story text together with animations, vocabulary definitions, and sound effects. Some storybooks incorporate an audio version of the text. CD-ROM storybooks offer great potential for engaging students, and some incorporate valuable literacy supports. Thus, they can benefit reluctant readers and students with deficits in basic literacy skills. However, their multimedia features are not always instructionally germane. Some storybooks feature entertaining animations and sound effects that, while entertaining, do not directly support access or learning. In fact, they may be distracting for some students. Thus, teachers are wise to select CD-ROM storybooks carefully and with consideration of individual student characteristics. CD-Roms (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) are similar to commercial audio CD-disks (music CDs) but can store audio (sound), video, text (typed words) and graphics (pictures). This mix of media in a single technology is referred to as 'multimedia', Multimedia resources can either be distributed or accessed using CD- Roms or the World Wide Web (WWW). The text that appears on your computer screen when you open a site on the WWW, or open a CD-Rom programme, will look much like what you are used to finding in books. But it has at least one important difference: the existence of what are called 'hyperlinks'. You may notice that some words in the text appear in a different colour, or are underlined. This generally indicates that they are hyper-links – which indicate that you can move directly from this word to linked ideas elsewhere on the CD-Rom, or anywhere on the WWW. Hyperlinks have made navigation through multimedia materials much easier since, with the click of a mouse button, a user can bring up different screens, playavideo or audio clip, or switch to a standard computer application. As CD-Roms store and play back huge amounts of data, they are commonly used for storing any type of computer files (for example, for archiving files), as an alternative way of publishing books, for storing and distributing computer software, games and educational materials. The data can either be plain text (such as a dictionary or thesaurus, or word document) or include pictures, photographs, audio or video clips (such as a multimedia encyclopaedia).Tips about using CD-Roms in education• CD-Roms can have written text, pictures, video clips and sound on them. They are called multimedia resources.• CD-Roms can be used as a source of information like a reference book in a library. • CD-Roms are often used for interactive stories, or talking books for primary school children.
• When you set tasks on using a CD-Rom, plan your tasks carefully so that questions are open but structured.• When evaluating a CD-Rom or deciding whether to buy it, consider:– how the information has been selected;– what it looks like and how easy it is to use;– how the information has been organized;– the quality of information or content.
Video/videodiscs
Video/videodiscs offer a means to contextualize curriculum content and instruction across the curriculum. For example, video can be used to anchor mathematics instruction to an authentic context. That is, video can be used to present to students a real-world context within which mathematical problem-solving can then be situated. Video/videodisc-based anchored instruction can similarly be applied to contextualize instruction in other content areas. These approaches are valuable in helping to engage and motivate students, in providing students with alternatives to text, and in supporting differences in background knowledge. Another example of how a video clip can be used in a class situation.
Hypermedia Hypermedia refers to hyperlinked multimedia—the linkage of text, audio, graphics, animation, and/or video through hyperlinks. For example, a hypermedia study guide might offer illustrated textbook content hyperlinked to web-based video and other content, glossary entries, and comprehension questions. Other hypermedia applications for the classroom include supported digital reading environments and lessons. Hypermedia offers a powerful means to integrate curriculum content with instructional supports and address varied student needs. Digital texts can be enriched with a range of instructional supports such as vocabulary definitions, glossaries, translations, explanatory notes, background information, and instructional prompts. Each of these supports can take the form of varied media. For example, vocabulary definitions might be presented as text, pictures, and/or animated graphics. Background information might be presented as a map, video, annotated bibliography with text and audio, or illustrated timeline. Hypermedia can support differences in students' ability to access specific media forms and differences in their literacy and media literacy skills; they also provide alternative means to engage learners. Using hypermedia, teachers can help a variety of learners, including English language learners, second language learners, and students with comprehension problems, to overcome important barriers posed by printed texts. Moreover, because the various supports are present as hyperlinks, students can access them individually, as needed, and on-demand. In addition to offering new means to present curriculum content, hypermedia offers new means for students to demonstrate knowledge and skill. Using hypermedia design software, students can construct multimedia compositions that afford them a much greater range of possibilities than text. This is particularly important for students whose difficulty with writing might obscure their mastery of curriculum content. Computer simulations
Computer simulations are computer-generated versions of real-world objects (for example, a brain) or processes (for example, an election). They may be fully automated or interactive, eliciting user input. Computer simulations are a means to "open up the walls of the classroom," providing students with an opportunity to observe, manipulate, and investigate phenomena that are normally inaccessible—an orbiting satellite or foreign culture—using tools and materials that are not available in the classroom. In this respect, they provide an advantageous alternative to learning that might otherwise rely on lecture and printed text. Not only do simulations reduce barriers for students who struggle with these conventional media, they provide multiple models for skill learning, and can increase the immediacy and authenticity of learning content, which is advantageous to many learners. Computer simulations can be used to increase content knowledge. For example, a simulated marine ecosystem can be used to teach ecology concepts. Simulations are particularly well suited to confronting students with their misconceptions about essential learning concepts and helping them to develop more accurate conceptual models. Simulations can also be used to develop skills. For example, simulated science experiments can be used to facilitate mastery of science process skills. Computer simulations are available on the web, as well as in software form. Using the Internet The Internet is a global web of computers that are connected to each other. This connection enables computer users to share information and , resources. In simple terms, the Internet has two main parts - the World. Wide Web (WWW) and e-mail. No one owns the Internet, and anyone can use it. You can put your own information onto the Internet by making your own website, or you can visit the web sites that other people have created. You can also send and receive e-mail as long as you have an e-mail address. In this section, we look at the ways you can use the WWW and e-mail to support your teaching. E-mail can be used:• for personal and administrative communication;• for sharing computer files;• to send or receive distribution list messages;• to subscribe to or initiate discussion groups;• for collaborative projects between geographically separated learning groups. The World Wide WebTips about using the WWW • The WWW can be used to find information of general interest on almost any topic. • It also contains news about education (such as policy developments, research reports, news and journal articles), as well as lesson ideas, work-sheets and notes from education sites.• Teachers can use it to set class activities on a specific website or a number of a number websites.• They can also get learners involved in designing their own website.
The World Wide Web (WWW) allows computer users to view multimedia materials (like those on CD-Roms) through a computer software programme called a 'browser' (such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer or Mosaic). This means that you can visit web sites that have been created by other users, or you can create your own websites. Some websites have been specifically designed for educational content. These take users through carefully designed content, in much the same way as was discussed under Using the computer as a tutor. The biggest difficulty here (besides the expense of being online) is that there is very little relevant content for South African learners at this stage. Some tertiary education courses are now being offered online, but there is currently very little available for South African school learners. Increasingly, though, learner sites are being developed. Here are some useful sites: • The Learning Channel at www.learn.co.za has materials based on Science, English, Business Economics and Geography for Grade 12 and some additional materials for Grades 9, 10 and II. • Cyberschool Africa (www.cyberschool.co.za) has developed online materials for matriculants in mathematics, science and biology. • The Mathematics Learning and Teaching Initiative (MALATI) at //www.wcape//. school.za/malati is an excellent resource site for mathematics teachers. • The University of the Western Cape has created an online South African Grade 10 Biology textbook at http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/scCed/index.htm. It is textbased and content driven, and has links to other resources on each topic of the Grade 10 Biology syllabus.
Navigating the Internet: using search engines
Search engines or directory websites enable you to enter key words and phrases, and scour the WWW for websites on any topic you wish to explore. They perform roughly the same function as a catalogue cabinet (or computer search programme) in a library. In a library, though, there is a librarian in charge and only a finite number of resources. So, if what you are looking for is not in the catalogue, you know it's not in the library. No one is in charge of the Internet, and anyone can contribute information. As a result, there is no central catalogue of websites, so finding what we are looking for would be much more difficult without search engines and directories. One of the main difficulties is that information comes from all over the world. It is therefore often helpful to limit your search to websites from a specific place (like South Africa). There are two main ways in which we can search the WWW: • Search engines use computer programmes to wander through the WWW and follow links collecting details from these websites to catalogue and index. • Directories look like search engines and perform the same functions, but finding and cataloguing the web sites is done by human researchers, not through programmes.
Why are computers important?• Computers are used in almost all offices and workplaces. They are an important part of society and cannot be ignored.• People who know how to use computers have more chance of getting a job.• Computers can improve the quality of teaching. They can be used as an educational resource.• Learners like using computers and are motivated by them..• But most South African schools do not have computers. This is a problem as computers can make the gap between the well-resourced and under-resourced schools and communities even wider. First steps• For you to use computers in your teaching, you need to be computer literate.• To do this you can go on a course, buy your own computer or try to get a computer for staff use at your school.• Computer competence is one of the critical cross-field outcomes of Curriculum 200S. All learners must become computer literate.• Learners can be taught how to use computers in a special computer literacy period in a computer laboratory.• But computer literacy classes are not enough. Teachers must also introduce computers into their subject area lessons.
At the end of this module you should be-able to:
Multimedia Applications for the Classroom
There is a clear disconnect between the media students are accustomed to using outside the classroom and the media they predominantly use within the classroom. Students spend copious amounts of their free time socializing, shopping, and even studying on the Internet, where they are flooded with text, images, video, animation, and sound in what is a complex multimedia environment. The younger generation is intimately familiar with multimedia, accustomed to receiving and sharing information in a range of formats. In contrast, students spend most of their time in the classroom viewing printed text and listening to a teacher. This disconnect is troublesome. While students are accustomed to having a range of means to communicate and process information outside of school, they must conform to a more restrictive media environment within school. Printed text is one-size-fits-all, but students' learning strengths, needs, and interests are all over the map. Thus, the traditional print-driven curriculum raises a number of barriers to access and learning.
Integration of multimedia into instruction can help to reduce curriculum barriers and improve learning for all students. This article provides a basic introduction to multimedia and describes how it can be used to support student learning.
A general definition of multimedia
Multimedia is in essence a presentation of information that incorporates multiple media such as text, audio, graphics, and animation. The representations can be redundant, incorporating the same content, or complementary, offering additional information. Multimedia need not be computerized, but computers offer some of the most seamless multimedia presentations. Moreover, digital multimedia, such as a simple CD-ROM, can offer teachers greater ease of presentation.
Types of multimedia and their classroom applications
There are numerous types of multimedia. Below we review a selection of different multimedia forms, focusing on their potential for supporting diverse learners.
Talking books and speech synthesis
Digital texts can be read aloud using recorded human voice or synthetic text-to-speech programs. Read-aloud is an intrinsic feature of so-called talking books, but with text-to-speech software, virtually any digital content—including web-based texts—can be read aloud, with or without synchronous highlighting of the printed text. Speech synthesis can be segmented at a variety of levels, providing feedback at the level of the passage, sentence, word, onset rime, syllable, or subsyllable. Read-aloud offers potential benefits to many students, including students with visual deficits, students with decoding problems, and reluctant readers. In addition to providing access to curriculum content for those who cannot see or decode printed text, read-aloud can support the development of key literacy skills such as fluency and reading comprehension, and increase engagement and motivation.
Text-to-speech is also a beneficial writing tool. It may be easier for students to recognize errors when listening versus reading a composition. By using text-to-speech to read back the text they have written, students may be able to revise more successfully.
CD-ROM storybooks
CD-ROM storybooks offer digital text in combination with features such as animations, illustrations, speech, and sound. For example, a CD-ROM storybook might offer the story text together with animations, vocabulary definitions, and sound effects. Some storybooks incorporate an audio version of the text. CD-ROM storybooks offer great potential for engaging students, and some incorporate valuable literacy supports. Thus, they can benefit reluctant readers and students with deficits in basic literacy skills. However, their multimedia features are not always instructionally germane. Some storybooks feature entertaining animations and sound effects that, while entertaining, do not directly support access or learning. In fact, they may be distracting for some students. Thus, teachers are wise to select CD-ROM storybooks carefully and with consideration of individual student characteristics.
CD-Roms (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) are similar to commercial audio CD-disks (music CDs) but can store audio (sound), video, text (typed words) and graphics (pictures). This mix of media in a single technology is referred to as 'multimedia', Multimedia resources can either be distributed or accessed using CD- Roms or the World Wide Web (WWW). The text that appears on your computer screen when you open a site on the WWW, or open a CD-Rom programme, will look much like what you are used to finding in books. But it has at least one important difference: the existence of what are called 'hyperlinks'. You may notice that some words in the text appear in a different colour, or are underlined. This generally indicates that they are hyper-links – which indicate that you can move directly from this word to linked ideas elsewhere on the CD-Rom, or anywhere on the WWW. Hyperlinks have made navigation through multimedia materials much easier since, with the click of a mouse button, a user can bring up different screens, playavideo or audio clip, or switch to a standard computer application.
As CD-Roms store and play back huge amounts of data, they are commonly used for storing any type of computer files (for example, for archiving files), as an alternative way of publishing books, for storing and distributing computer software, games and educational materials. The data can either be plain text (such as a dictionary or thesaurus, or word document) or include pictures, photographs, audio or video clips (such as a multimedia encyclopaedia).Tips about using CD-Roms in education• CD-Roms can have written text, pictures, video clips and sound on them. They are called multimedia resources.• CD-Roms can be used as a source of information like a reference book in a library.
• CD-Roms are often used for interactive stories, or talking books for primary school children.
• When you set tasks on using a CD-Rom, plan your tasks carefully so that questions are open but structured.• When evaluating a CD-Rom or deciding whether to buy it, consider:– how the information has been selected;– what it looks like and how easy it is to use;– how the information has been organized;– the quality of information or content.
Video/videodiscs
Video/videodiscs offer a means to contextualize curriculum content and instruction across the curriculum. For example, video can be used to anchor mathematics instruction to an authentic context. That is, video can be used to present to students a real-world context within which mathematical problem-solving can then be situated. Video/videodisc-based anchored instruction can similarly be applied to contextualize instruction in other content areas. These approaches are valuable in helping to engage and motivate students, in providing students with alternatives to text, and in supporting differences in background knowledge.
Another example of how a video clip can be used in a class situation.
Hypermedia
Hypermedia refers to hyperlinked multimedia—the linkage of text, audio, graphics, animation, and/or video through hyperlinks. For example, a hypermedia study guide might offer illustrated textbook content hyperlinked to web-based video and other content, glossary entries, and comprehension questions. Other hypermedia applications for the classroom include supported digital reading environments and lessons.
Hypermedia offers a powerful means to integrate curriculum content with instructional supports and address varied student needs. Digital texts can be enriched with a range of instructional supports such as vocabulary definitions, glossaries, translations, explanatory notes, background information, and instructional prompts. Each of these supports can take the form of varied media. For example, vocabulary definitions might be presented as text, pictures, and/or animated graphics. Background information might be presented as a map, video, annotated bibliography with text and audio, or illustrated timeline.
Hypermedia can support differences in students' ability to access specific media forms and differences in their literacy and media literacy skills; they also provide alternative means to engage learners. Using hypermedia, teachers can help a variety of learners, including English language learners, second language learners, and students with comprehension problems, to overcome important barriers posed by printed texts. Moreover, because the various supports are present as hyperlinks, students can access them individually, as needed, and on-demand.
In addition to offering new means to present curriculum content, hypermedia offers new means for students to demonstrate knowledge and skill. Using hypermedia design software, students can construct multimedia compositions that afford them a much greater range of possibilities than text. This is particularly important for students whose difficulty with writing might obscure their mastery of curriculum content.
Computer simulations
Computer simulations are computer-generated versions of real-world objects (for example, a brain) or processes (for example, an election). They may be fully automated or interactive, eliciting user input. Computer simulations are a means to "open up the walls of the classroom," providing students with an opportunity to observe, manipulate, and investigate phenomena that are normally inaccessible—an orbiting satellite or foreign culture—using tools and materials that are not available in the classroom. In this respect, they provide an advantageous alternative to learning that might otherwise rely on lecture and printed text. Not only do simulations reduce barriers for students who struggle with these conventional media, they provide multiple models for skill learning, and can increase the immediacy and authenticity of learning content, which is advantageous to many learners.
Computer simulations can be used to increase content knowledge. For example, a simulated marine ecosystem can be used to teach ecology concepts. Simulations are particularly well suited to confronting students with their misconceptions about essential learning concepts and helping them to develop more accurate conceptual models. Simulations can also be used to develop skills. For example, simulated science experiments can be used to facilitate mastery of science process skills. Computer simulations are available on the web, as well as in software form.
Using the Internet
The Internet is a global web of computers that are connected to each other. This connection enables computer users to share information and , resources. In simple terms, the Internet has two main parts - the World. Wide Web (WWW) and e-mail. No one owns the Internet, and anyone can use it. You can put your own information onto the Internet by making your own website, or you can visit the web sites that other people have created. You can also send and receive e-mail as long as you have an e-mail address. In this section, we look at the ways you can use the WWW and e-mail to support your teaching.
E-mail can be used:• for personal and administrative communication;• for sharing computer files;• to send or receive distribution list messages;• to subscribe to or initiate discussion groups;• for collaborative projects between geographically separated learning groups.
The World Wide WebTips about using the WWW
• The WWW can be used to find information of general interest on almost any topic.
• It also contains news about education (such as policy developments, research reports, news and journal articles), as well as lesson ideas, work-sheets and notes from education sites.• Teachers can use it to set class activities on a specific website or a number of a number websites.• They can also get learners involved in designing their own website.
The World Wide Web (WWW) allows computer users to view multimedia materials (like those on CD-Roms) through a computer software programme called a 'browser' (such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer or Mosaic). This means that you can visit web sites that have been created by other users, or you can create your own websites. Some websites have been specifically designed for educational content. These take users through carefully designed content, in much the same way as was discussed under Using the computer as a tutor. The biggest difficulty here (besides the expense of being online) is that there is very little relevant content for South African learners at this stage. Some tertiary education courses are now being offered online, but there is currently very little available for South African school learners.
Increasingly, though, learner sites are being developed. Here are some useful sites:
• The Learning Channel at www.learn.co.za has materials based on Science, English, Business Economics and Geography for Grade 12 and some additional materials for Grades 9, 10 and II.
• Cyberschool Africa (www.cyberschool.co.za) has developed online materials for matriculants in mathematics, science and biology.
• The Mathematics Learning and Teaching Initiative (MALATI) at //www.wcape//. school.za/malati is an excellent resource site for mathematics teachers.
• The University of the Western Cape has created an online South African Grade 10 Biology textbook at http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/scCed/index.htm. It is textbased and content driven, and has links to other resources on each topic of the Grade 10 Biology syllabus.
Navigating the Internet: using search engines
Search engines or directory websites enable you to enter key words and phrases, and scour the WWW for websites on any topic you wish to explore. They perform roughly the same function as a catalogue cabinet (or computer search programme) in a library.
In a library, though, there is a librarian in charge and only a finite number of resources. So, if what you are looking for is not in the catalogue, you know it's not in the library. No one is in charge of the Internet, and anyone can contribute information. As a result, there is no central catalogue of websites, so finding what we are looking for would be much more difficult without search engines and directories. One of the main difficulties is that information comes from all over the world. It is therefore often helpful to limit your search to websites from a specific place (like South Africa). There are two main ways in which we can search the WWW:
• Search engines use computer programmes to wander through the WWW and follow links collecting details from these websites to catalogue and index.
• Directories look like search engines and perform the same functions, but finding and cataloguing the web sites is done by human researchers, not through programmes.
Why are computers important?• Computers are used in almost all offices and workplaces. They are an important part of society and cannot be ignored.• People who know how to use computers have more chance of getting a job.• Computers can improve the quality of teaching. They can be used as an educational resource.• Learners like using computers and are motivated by them..• But most South African schools do not have computers. This is a problem as computers can make the gap between the well-resourced and under-resourced schools and communities even wider.
First steps• For you to use computers in your teaching, you need to be computer literate.• To do this you can go on a course, buy your own computer or try to get a computer for staff use at your school.• Computer competence is one of the critical cross-field outcomes of Curriculum 200S. All learners must become computer literate.• Learners can be taught how to use computers in a special computer literacy period in a computer laboratory.• But computer literacy classes are not enough. Teachers must also introduce computers into their subject area lessons.
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